The Philadelphia 76ers continue with injuries to players up and down their lineup and they need others to step up and get the job done. On Saturday, rookie Tyrese Maxey filled a role filling in for an injured Ben Simmons, but Philadelphia also got a big boost out of Tobias Harris.
While Harris’ numbers have not been terrible lately, it does seem he has gotten off to slow starts. On Saturday, he had 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting in the first quarter as Philadelphia was able to build a 34-17 lead and win easily over the Detroit Pistons on the night.
Along with Simmons, the Sixers were missing Seth Curry and Furkan Korkmaz who are two other main offensive options. They needed Harris to set the tone for Philadelphia early as the Pistons could not defend him.
“We needed him to,” said Joel Embiid. “With Ben, Furkan not playing, Seth not playing, we needed him to be aggressive. He should be aggressive as every single night. He should get the ball, he should get shots up, he should create for his teammates. For him to come out and do that, I think he set the tone.”
The Sixers did not run many plays for Harris in this one, but they were reaping the benefits of him getting back to what was making him successful which is making quick decisions. Recently, he was doing too many isolation plays and that was bothering coach Doc Rivers.
“The first play was for him, but we talked to him today about quick decisions,” Rivers stated. “He had gotten away from that. I thought a lot of his stuff were ISOs or a slow post and we told him ‘get back to being Bernard King’. That’s who we like. Quick decisions, downhill, shoulders down at guys. He is such a force with his speed at the 4, and I thought he had gotten away from that. I think part of that was health, but as you can see tonight, he can get back to and it was good for him.”
Harris finished with 18 points on 7-for-16 shooting and the team needed it in this one. Philadelphia will need more of this from the veteran as the season goes on.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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